“Who better than Wal-Mart to stretch energy dollars farther than anyone ever has?” asks company Chief Executive Lee Scott in a speech given to employees last fall prior to a two-day meeting for analysts of the publicly traded retailer. “To help lower our energy bills and gas prices for years to come, the environment is begging for the Wal-Mart business model.”
Scott's speech announced company-wide initiatives that include a $500 million annual investment in environmentally efficient technologies and the creation of a new store prototype that would be as much as 30 percent more efficient within the next four years.